CAPT. JOHN6 BUCKLIN, 2nd , CAPT. JOHN 1st 5,
JOSEPH4, JOSEPH3, WILLIAM2,
JOHN1 BUCKLAND) was born 12 Feb 1732/33 in Rehoboth,
MA1,2, and died 02 Apr 17903,4. He
married EMIMA ECK 5,6 05 Jan 1764 in Rehoboth, MA7,8,
daughter of THOMAS P ECK and DELIVERANCE . She was born 19 May 17449,10,11,12,
and died 181213,14. A separate bronze plaque as a
gravestone reads: "In Memory of Capt. John Bucklen [sic] who departed this
Life, the 2nd of April, 1790 in the 58th year of his Age."
John was a captain of the Rehoboth Minute Company in 1774. This was the
forerunner of the Revolutionary Town Militia. Originally chartered in 1774
by the town of Rehoboth as a town Militia unit, the unit was comprised of
mixed Militia and Minutemen. The "Minute Men" were men specially
charged with being ready to march on "a minute's notice" for the defense of
the town.
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| Recreated Rehoboth Minute Company marches in Gaspee
Days Celebrations. |
By 1775 the Rehoboth Militia was a force of 210 persons. At that time
there were under the command of Capt. John Daggett of Attleboro and Col.
Timothy Walker of Rehoboth. On April 9, 1975, ten days before the
confrontation between the British and American forces at Concord and
Lexington, the unit was sent to Freetown MA. Without a shot being fired, the
Rehoboth militia seized 40 stands of British arms, munitions, and
accoutrements. We assume that Capt John Bucklin was among those
persons. Is it little wonder that the English army commander was
marching to Concord and Lexington to seize the powder and arms of the
Massachusetts Militia and Minutemen in those towns!
On the Concord and Lexington alarm, the Rehoboth Company was
dispatched to the Roxbury and Dorchester area of Boston, where as part of
the Massachusetts the troops were absorbed into Washington's Continental
forces during the American army's reorganization in 1776 at the Boston camp.
Many members of the original unit went on to serve with Gen. George
Washington's Continental forces under the Mass. 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 11th,
16th, and 13th Continental Regiments later in the war. Colonel Thomas
Carpenter took over the remaining town Militia in 1776. Under Carpenter, the
unit took part in battles such as the battle of White Plains, the Battle of
Rhode Island, the battle at Yonkers, NY, and the battle of Long Island. By
the end of the war, John was a Capt. in the American Revolutionary Army
The Rehoboth Minutemen and Militia was an active defense system for the
town until April 24, 1840, at which time it was disbanded by General Order.
The descendants of Capt. John Bucklin included may important figures of
the next century, like Thomas Peck Bucklin, (the Thomas P. Bucklin in the
plaque shown above) one of the richest of the persons owning companies of
clipper ships. We believe that whoever erected this plaque for some
reason did not include all of the children of Capt. John Bucklin, instead
opting for including the children of George and Hannah. The central
stone column has four equal size bronze plaques on it, commemorating
different persons, so considerations of plaque size may be one reason for
the option chosen.
